Central Europe Campaign

The Central Europe Campaign (22 March-2 May 1945) was the final campaign of the Western Front of World War II in Europe, involving an Allied invasion of Germany along a broad front. The Allied forces penetrated deep into the heart of the Reich as German resistance faltered, and they faced the remnants of once-strong German armies and weak volkssturm militiamen. The campaign lasted until 2 May 1945, when the Americans linked up with Soviet troops along the Elbe at Torgau, dividing Germany in two.

Crossing the Rhine
By 17 March 1945, the Allied armies were everywhere closing up to the Rhine and were preparing to make other crossings during their advance into Germany. At this juncture, Adolf Hitler issued a draconian order: everything that might be of possible value to the Allies was to be destroyed - communications, industry, and even food supplies. Hitler believed that the nation should perish if the war was lost, and that the German nation should suffer for its "betrayal". Hitler's armaments minister, Albert Speer, was horrified, as he believed that it was the duty of the leadership to ensure that the German people had some means of reconstructing their lives once the war was over. He persuaded the commanders in the west not to carry out the order.

The next Allied crossing over the Rhine, after the first crossing at Remagen, occurred in the US Third Army sector. On the night of 22-23 March 1945, George S. Patton's men achieved a "bounce" crossing over the river at Oppenheim, reaching the west bank and crossing to the other side without any pause for preparation. They caught most of the defenders asleep, overwhelming them. The following night, British and Canadian troops made three crossings in deliberate operations that had been under preparation for two weeks. Assault boats, amphibious vehicles, and bridging equipment had been carefully deployed. In addition, a massive weight of artillery had been massed, and the RAF Bomber Command launched tow attacks on the town of Wesel, where the main concentration of German troops in the area was located. Once the assaultl troops had established themselves on the far bank, the final airborne operation of the war in the west, Operation Varsity, took place. The British 6th Airborne Division and the US 17th Airborne Division dropped by parachute and landed by glider to the east of Wesel in order to provide instant depth to the bridgehead that had been created there, and they landed among the German artillery positions, preventing any possibility of a counterattack.

The Third Army achieved two further crossings on the night of 24-25 March 1945, and the Seventh Army also crossed the Rhine at two places on the 26th, with the French crossing at Germersheim on 31 March. The Allies were now on the east bank of the Rhine on a 200-mile front, and they were still shoulder-to-shoulder, in line with Dwight D. Eisenhower's strategy. During the campaign, the Germans suffered 60,000 losses, and 250,000 Germans had been captured and vast amounts of equipment had been lost. The German forces in the west were crumbling, and it appeared that the Western Allies would get to the German capital of Brlin first as the Vistula-Oder Offensive was halted on the Oder River.

Plans for the final offensive
On 28 March 1945, Eisenhower drafted a message to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin that reassured him that he did not intend to make Berlin an objective for his forces, leaving the German capital to the Soviets. The Allies instead advanced to the Erfurt-Leipzig-Dresden line, an area to which he believed the Germans were moving their organs of government. British prime minister Winston Churchill believed that waiting for the Soviets to take Berlin would prolong the war and enable them to reap the main fruits of victory, and Bernard Montgomery considered that his single-thrust strategy could be used. However, the US chiefs of staff supported Eisenhower, an dthe British were forced to back down. Furthermore, Allied intelligence had been warning of the Nazi intention to establish a final bastion in the Alps, and Eisenhower needed to forestall this.

Eisenhower's plan for the advance from the Rhine was that Omar Bradley's US 12th Army Group was to make the main thrust toward Dresden, taking back the US Ninth Army under command once the Ruhr had been encircled. Montgomery was given the supporting role of covering Bradley's northern flank, much to his fury. Devers' US 6th Army Group was to advance southeastward toward the Bavarian Alps to prevent hte establishment of the so-called National Redoubt, where a last-ditch stand might be made.

Invasion of Germany
The various armies were already breaking out of their bridgeheads before the end of March, and the US First and Ninth Armies had the Ruhr encircled on 1 April. Trapped inside was a large part of Army Group B, still commanded by Walter Model. Hitler ordered him to defend the Ruhr to the last, and his troops did not attempt to escape the encirclement. This left a gap in the German defenses, and Bradley took advantage of this; his forces raced to the Elbe. Elements of the Ninth Army entered Hanover on 11 April and reached Magdeburg the following day. The forces sent to reduce the Ruhr Pocket steadily squeezed it, and by 18 April it was no more; 325,000 German troops surrendered, and Model chose to commit suicide.

To the south, George S. Patton's Third Army found stiff resistance in Frankfurt-am-Main, and he left his infantry to deal with this, bypassing the city with his armor and linking up with the First Army to his north. He captured Kassel on 4 April. While the French First Army cleared the Black Forest en route to the border with Switzerland, the US Seventh Army advanced to the Main River, reaching Wurzburg on 5 April and Schweinfurt on 11 April. Many towns displayed white flags and offered no resistance at all, but some towns, especially ones garrisoned by SS troops, offered bitter resistance. Refugees had nowhere to flee, so they stayed in their homes and hoped that the fighting would quickly move on.

Closing up to the Elbe
By mid-April 1945, the US First and Ninth Armies had closed up to the Elbe, and William Simpson's Ninth Army established a bridgehead at Magdeburg. He pleaded with Eisenhower to be allowed to go on to Berlin, just 70 miles away; however, Eisenhower was concerned that US troops were already inside the agreed Soviet postwar zone of occupation, and he ordered that there was to be no further advance east of the Elbe River or across the Mulde to its south. Instead, Bradley was to turn southeast to the Danube valley and link up with the Red Army so as to isolate the National Redoubt, which did not, in fact, exist. The Seventh Army captured Nuremberg on 20 April after a fierce battle against SS troops and continued south to the Danube, while Patton's Third Army moved into Czechoslovakia through the Danube Valley and reached Pilsen before he was halted by Eisenhower. The US First Army sent reconnaissance patrols 5 miles to the east of the Mulde River to investigate when Soviet soldiers when they would appear, and one patrol met Soviet troops at Torgau on the Elbe on 25 April 1945, physically splitting Germany in two.

Advance in the North
In the north, Montgomery had also made good progress. The Canadian 1st Army had the initial task of liberating the northeast Netherlands, and it advanced to Groningen on 16 April 1945, despite facing some flooding. The German 25th Army was finally cut off, but it showed no sign of surrendering. The plight of the starving Dutch was now of very real concern, so 25th Army commander Gunther Blumentritt and Army Group H commander Johannes Blaskowitz reached an agreement with the Allies so that the Allies could deliver foodstuffs to the Dutch by air. The strategic bombing forces were given the task of dropping supplies to the Dutch civilians, and the Germans did not interfere. Meanwhile, the Canadians began to clear the North Sea coast of Germany.

The British Second Army continued its advance in a norhteastward direction, capturing Osnabruck on 4 April 1945 and reaching the Weser River the next day. Montgomery's orders were to secure Hamburg and the naval base at Kiel, cut off Schleswig-Holstein, and prepare to liberate Denmark. As the Americans were finding to the south, some German forces were still prepared to fight, and there were some bitter encounters. The fiercest resistance was in Bremen, where the German commander and 6,000 men only surrendered after nine days of fighting. The British were concerned that Hamburg might prove to be an even tougher battle.

Eisenhower was becoming worried about Soviet intentions in the north of Germany, as the speed of the Soviet advance north of Berlin created a danger that they might enter Schleswig-Holstein themselves. If this happened, they could liberate Denmark and create a communist puppet government. Eisenhower therefore ordered Montgomery to cross the Elbe and secure Lubeck. With the support of the US XVIII Airborne Corps, the Elbe was crossed on 29 April 1945, and the British reached Lubeck on 2 May, the day on which Berlin surrendered and two days after the suicide of Hitler. The Americans went farther east to Wismar, where they met the Red Army. Meanwhile, the commander of the Hamburg garrison was persuaded to surrender.

By this time, many German troops were making their way westward to avoid falling into Soviet hands. In the 21st Army Group sector, this issue became blaringly apparent. Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, the new leader of Nazi Germany, sent a delegation to Montgomery''s headquarters on Luneberg Heath on 3 May 1945, asking him to accept the surrender of Army Group Vistula, which was facing the 2nd Byelorussian Front, as well as requesting that he shape his operations so that as many civilians as possible be given the chance to escape falling into Soviet hands. Montgomery replied that Army Group Vistula was a Soviet concern, but that he would accept the surrender of all German forces in northwest Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark. Doenitz agreed, and the following day the delegation returned and signed the document of surrender.

End of the war
Meanwhile, Stalin informed his generals that he intended to take Berlin before the Western Allies did, and he ordered an offensive into Brandenburg by 16 April 1945. Three days earlier, he warned the Allies that the coming offensive would be launched against Dresden and Leipzig, probably in mid-May, and it was not until mid-April that the British and Americans became aware that the offensive was imminent. Stalin calmly reassured them that the principal thrust was to be made on Leipzig. Meanwhile, Hitler concinved himself that he offensive would be made toward Prague rather than Berlin, and he was confident that the line on the Oder would hold and that the Red Army was at breaking point. He transferred three panzergrenadier divisions of Army Group Vistula to the south, underestimating the Soviets. The ensuing Battle of Berlin saw 464,000 Soviet troops, 12,700 guns, 21,000 rocket launchers, and 1,500 tanks assault the city, and Berlin fell to the Soviets on 2 May 1945.

Pockets of German resistance continued in Czechoslovakia even after the surrender of Berlin. On 4 May, the citizens of Prague took to the streets, emboldened by the approach of the Third Army. However, on 7 May 1945, the Americans were ordered to withdraw by President Harry S. Truman, who was determined that no American lives were to be risked in so volatile a situation. Much confusion had reigned in Prague between 4 and 8 May as Czechs clashed with SS units, and Soviet tanks reached the outer suburbs of Prague on 9 May as its garrison streamed westward to escape the Red Army. Later that day, Soviet armor rolled into Prague. They had been unaware that just two days before, 7 May, the Germans had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies. On 7 May 1945, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel signed an official instrument of surrender at Reims in France, and again on 8 May in Berlin. 8 May 1945 lived on in history as Victory in Europe Day, and millions of people celebrated in Europe, the US, and elsewhere, as the war was finally over.